‘Govt failed to boost economy, to halt unemployment’

ISLAMABAD: Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that despite devaluation of 40 percent the incumbent regime failed to boost up exports and tax collection at import stage so it was the biggest failure on the economic front.

He also said that 2.5 million Pakistanis lost jobs in last two years out of which 1.5 million lost jobs in pre COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and around one million lost jobs in the aftermath of COVID-19.

While talking to The News on the performance of PTI led regime, the PML-N leader said that around 10 million people fell below the poverty line. “The poor segments of the society faced the major burnt of bad economic policies” he said and added that the inflation that was considered tax on poor peaked to over 12 percent under PTI led regime that the PML-N led left at single digit of 3.9 percent.

He said that it was the worst situation where the flour/atta prices doubled so the country became food insecure. He said that the child nutrition intake related situation worsened in Pakistan in last two years.

On fiscal side, he said that the government could not collect FBR taxes as the PML-N made 100 percent in absolute figure but the FBR collection literally remained flat in last two years. He said that the budget deficit stood at over 9.1 percent of GDP in first year rule of PTI and it stood at 8.1 percent for the second year in 2019-20 against projection of over 9.1 percent of GDP. The government, he said, saved Rs560 billion equivalent to 1.5 percent of GDP through its inability to utilise funds for financial package to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

He said that the government allowed devaluation of 40 percent but its exports could not increase. He said that the incumbent regime was thumping over reduction into current account deficit and cited example that if he would decrease his expenditures by ousting his kids from school it should be cause of worrisome but this inefficient government was celebrating it. He said that the import of machinery was curtailed so economic slowdown would cause more harm in months and years ahead.

He said that the imports were reduced in dollar terms but in rupee term it increased but the FBR revenues declined.

He said that the overall GDP growth declined massively as it stood at 5.8 percent of GDP in PML-N tenure but it nosedived to negative 0.4 percent of GDP so the country was bound to witness hike in poverty and unemployment.

He said that over the last two years, the PTI government has weakened the national power of Pakistan through its incompetence, failures and corruption. “Our national power consists of the strength of our economy, politics, foreign policy, society, democratic governance structure, constitutional federalism, infrastructure, freedom of expression, and human resources, amongst other things,” he said.

The income of the average Pakistani, which had increased by 24% between 2014 and 2018, has reduced by 16% over the last 2 years, from $1652 to $1388.

The size of GDP has shrunk from $315 billion to $264 billion over the last two years, which would have been $350 billion today had growth momentum generated by PML-N been maintained, he said.

He said that he was pleased that remittances were increasing from last two months and he wanted to congratulate the government. He said that it was yet to see whether it was one off phenomena or it persisted over the year period because the remittances increased without any measures taken by the government to this effect.